Fit 225: More Carb Craving Solutions, Burn Fat, Gain Self Confidence!

In this episode: Part three of eliminating cravings, what to do in the gym to crank your metabolism lose fat for women and men, three easy steps to increase self confidence and self esteem.

NUTRITION

Part three of ways to eliminate food cravings.

#1 Fix Your Digestion (aka Gut!) to eliminate carb cravings.
If your gut can't do its job properly, it increases carb cravings.

Here's a few reasons why:

Elevated or increased inflammation can cause carb cravings because when inflammation is elevated, your body becomes resistant to insulin’s message that you are satisfied and thus, makes you crave more food.
Nutrient deficiencies are always a lead cause of cravings and even more so if your digestion doesn't work right. If food is not being properly digested, how can you absorb the nutrients? Carb cravings tend to be associated with deficiencies of the B vitamins, chromium, magnesium, and carnitine.
Neurotransmitter function: Poor digestion (gut health) can alter neurotransmitter function and increase depression like symptoms. These symptoms often lead to overeating carbs! It's worse than the diet cycle and studies have even shown the viscous cycle! Depression or a low mood can lead people to consume high-sugar foods to elevate their mood and feel better. But as we know, blood sugar drops and the cycle continues.

How do you fix your digestion and gut health?
First, you eliminate foods that you may be hypersensitive to such as dairy or gluten. Next, you can use a Probiotic Supplement. Ingesting high-powered Probiotic bacteria and eating lots of prebiotic foods can optimize your health. A prebiotic is a special type of soluble fiber that is used mostly by the beneficial (good bacteria) as a fuel. These include onions, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, banana, and chicory root and are easy to add to your diet.

#2 Control your stress to eliminate carb cravings.
Stress does alot of damage to your body and can cause a definite increase in carb cravings. Carbohydrate foods supply your brain with serotonin which is synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan and makes you feel good. When stress hits you, Serotonin gets depleted. So, you crave carbs in order to refill that Serotonin. Add to that the fact that stress elevates cortisol levels. High cortisol levels actually reduce the desire for non-carb foods, making them less appetizing. Basically, you won't be craving fish with broccoli, but you will have a strong desire for cake, sweets and high carb foods.

How do you control this craving?
Stress management is vital to a healthy body! Everyone needs some form of stress release. It could be weight training, walking, Yoga, Meditation or some other form of mindset practices. Stress release has been found to have distinct effect on the body as it decreases cortisol. Be sure you incorporate some stress release into your daily routine!

#3 Sleep to eliminate carb cravings.
Lack of sleep increases desire for yummy carbs. Fatigue from lack of sleep also reduces your will power! Studies show people feel more hungry and make poor food choice when they are tired. This translates into eating as much as 300 extra calories a day! Insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance plunge when you are sleep deprived. This, in turn, puts your body into fat storage mode and makes it difficult to get out of fat storage mode too!

#4 Be honest to eliminate carb cravings.
You've heard it before-keep a food journal! You don't have to show it to anyone but yourself! Just be honest about everything you put in your mouth! When you review your food intake, don't beat yourself up or feel guilty. This is simply information to help you overcome your biological drive for carbs. Once you see the culprits, find low-glycemic carbs that are reasonable substitutes. Identify those foods that help reduce your cravings and which increase it.

The last three episodes have armed you with many tactics to eliminate your carb cravings! One or more is bound to help you! Be sure to comment here or on the Facebook Page which tip works for you!

TRAINING
What should you do in the gym to increase your metabolism and burn fat? Here are some tips that benefit both men and women looking to lose fat!

#1 Train for Strength and Lift “Heavy”
Deja vu, right? Most people, especially women, who are lifting weights do not use ones that are heavy enough to produce any significant changes in body comp or strength.

Amazing research found that when moderately-trained women were allowed to pick their weights, they used loads that were 30 percent lower than the lightest weight needed to produce any benefit. This means that the weights they chose were too light to build muscle, strength, or bone. And thus, provide little to no benefits! Additionally, these light weights didn't challenge them to use any extra energy so minimal calories were burned.

So how do you know which weight to use? I'll show you in the next tip! Just remember, ladies, that if you lift heavy weights, your body will respond by becoming more lean and athletic. You’ll increase your self-confidence too!

#2 Use the right weights to see changes
How do you know what weight will give you changes in your body? You use the repetitions as a guide. Based on your your “1RM,” which stands for “repetition maximum.” The weight at which you can do ONLY 10 reps is considered 75 percent of your 1RM, and 12 reps is 70 percent of your 1RM.

Let's review an example:
When training to lose body fat, you want to remain in the 8 to 12 repetition range for best results and complete from 4 to 8 sets.

If you’re training for fat loss, you’ll generally want to be working in the 8 to 12 rep range for between 4 and 8 sets. This will lead to a lot of lactic acid being produced, which is associated with a big metabolic disturbance. So, if you are in the 10 to 12 rep range and you put 105 pounds on the squat bar, but find that you can do 13 or more reps, the weight needs to be increased. Likewise, if you can only perform 8 or 9 reps, your load is too heavy. Say, you finish up your training cycle and decide it’s time to build strength because you have the goal of squatting your body weight. You’ll want to work in the 3 to 5 rep range with a much heavier weight than your 105 pounds, say 130 pounds.

#3: Have a Plan!
Deja vu again! You've heard me say this time and time again!

Your body can adapt quickly, which means that to keep making progress, you have to change some aspect of your workouts regularly. This is known as periodization. Basically, have a plan!

For example, if you’re training for strength, over the course of six weeks, you’d continually increase your weights at least every two weeks, even if only by one pound. When you plan and use periodization in your program you set goals for short and mid range for a specific period of time. It's best to plan out your workouts for at least four weeks, but you could do it for the whole year. This way, every time you walk into the gym you know exactly what you need to do.

Save time and stress by having a plan! You won't waste time repeating workouts or weights that your body has already adapted. This also helps in decreasing the chance of you skipping your workout.

#4 Avoid Anything that Causes Excess Stress
“Diets,” Cardio and Mental Stress are considered long-term stress. This is especially bad for the female body because it can mess up the female hormones. Reports suggest that when women restrict calories and do intense training such as sprints, they have a hard time losing body fat, especially in the long-term. The mega dose of physical "dieting" stress from low calories combined with overtraining increases cortisol. Progesterone, which is the hormonal precursor to testosterone and estrogen, is used to produce cortisol instead, leading to hormonal imbalances. This is what inhibits fat loss and make you feel blah.

#5: Prioritize Sprints to Lose Fat
Forget About Traditional “Cardio.” There are already too many reasons to stop depending on cardio for fat loss! Just don't severely restrict your calories at the same time! Need some reasons? Ok!

It takes at least double the training time to burn the same amount of calories with cardio as with sprint training.
Cardio doesn’t build lean muscle mass (and may cause you to lose muscle in the long run).
Cardio doesn’t produce much of an after burn, whereas interval training, such as sprints and weights makes your body burn more calories in the 24 hours after you exercise.
Cardio can lead to an elevation in the stress hormone cortisol, which leads to a worse body composition, whereas sprint training elevates hormones that build muscle and burn fat.

Bottom line take away:

To boost metabolism and burn body fat here's what to do:

Your first priority for changing your body should be weight training
Secondly, do some form of interval training such as sprints, “strongman” exercises like pushing a weighted sled, or circuit weight workouts that use zero rest between sets.
Eat adequate protein, carbs, fats and calories! No severe restrtictions!

Keep in mind, that these suggestions doesn’t mean you can’t go running, hiking, or biking for pleasure—exercise is good especially if you enjoy it! Just don’t make the mistake of trying to use cardio to tone your muscles and permanently boost your metabolism.

MOTIVATION
3 steps to better self confidence and self esteem!

Where is your self confidence and self-esteem on a scale of 1 to 10?
1 = I have no self confidence
10 =Over the top, I am very self confident.
For example, 10 would be you go to the gym, work out with weights and don't notice (or care) if anyone else is there, (esp men, if you are a woman).

Ask yourself a few questions:

Does your confidence change for different activities?
Is that your confidence in YOU or in your ability to do a skill?

Self-confidence isn't an overnight acquisition. It takes dedication and desire to recognize you are a good person that is worthy of respect, love, and self-worth.
Here are three simple steps to increase your confidence!

Part 1: Fix Your Self Talk
Acknowledge your emotions.
Emotion Checklist: Look Briefly for the Origin

Part 2: Recognize and acknowledge your successes.
Identify and own your successes.
Be a Victor.
Be thankful.
Help others.
Accept compliments.

Part 3: Forget your mistakes
Talk about insecurities with trusted friends. Learn from your mistakes everyone makes mistakes, and hopefully they don't make the same mistake twice! Approach mistakes as learning experiences. Make them an asset rather than a failure!